This page uses frames, but your browser doesn't support them.
World
Summit for Social Development
Copenhagen, 6 - 12 March 1995
[ Back
to Social Summit ]
[ Previous
Chapter ] [ Next
Chapter ]
Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social
Development:
Chapter III : Expansion of Productive Employment
and Reduction of Unemployment
Basis for action and objectives
42. Productive work and employment are central
elements of development as well as decisive elements of human identity.
Sustained economic growth and sustainable development as well as the expansion
of productive employment should go hand in hand. Full and adequately and
appropriately remunerated employment is an effective method of combating poverty
and promoting social integration. The goal of full employment requires that the
State, the social partners and all the other parts of civil society at all
levels cooperate to create conditions that enable everyone to participate in and
benefit from productive work. In a world of increasing globalization and
interdependence among countries, national efforts need to be buttressed by
international cooperation.
43. Globalization and rapid technological
development give rise to increased labour mobility, bringing new employment
opportunities as well as new uncertainties. There has been an increase in
part-time, casual and other forms of atypical employment. In addition to
requiring the creation of new employment opportunities on an unprecedented
scale, such an environment calls for expanded efforts to enhance human resource
development for sustainable development by, inter alia, enhancing the knowledge
and skills necessary for people, particularly for women and youth, to work
productively and adapt to changing requirements.
44. In many developed countries, growth in
employment is currently great in small and medium-sized enterprises and in
self-employment. In many developing countries, informal sector activities are
often the leading source of employment opportunities for people with limited
access to formal-sector wage employment, in particular for women. The removal of
obstacles to the operation of such enterprises and the provision of support for
their creation and expansion must be accompanied by protection of the basic
rights, health and safety of workers and the progressive improvement of overall
working conditions, together with the strengthening of efforts to make some
enterprises part of the formal sector.
45. While all groups can benefit from more
employment opportunities, specific needs and changing demographic patterns and
trends call for appropriate measures. Particular efforts by the public and
private sectors are required in all spheres of employment policy to ensure
gender equality, equal opportunity and non-discrimination on the basis of
race/ethnic group, religion, age, health and disability, and with full respect
for applicable international instruments. Special attention must also be paid to
the needs of groups who face particular disadvantages in their access to the
labour market so as to ensure their integration into productive activities,
including through the promotion of effective support mechanisms.
46. Much unremunerated productive work, such as
caring for children and older persons, producing and preparing food for the
family, protecting the environment and providing voluntary assistance to
vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals and groups, is of great social
importance. World wide, most of this work is done by women who often face the
double burden of remunerated and unremunerated work. Efforts are needed to
acknowledge the social and economic importance and value of unremunerated work,
to facilitate labour-force participation in combination with such work through
flexible working arrangements, encouraging voluntary social activities as well
as broadening the very conception of productive work, and to accord social
recognition for such work, including by developing methods for reflecting its
value in quantitative terms for possible reflection in accounts that may be
produced separately from, but consistent with, core national accounts.
47. There is therefore an urgent need, in the
overall context of promoting sustained economic growth and sustainable
development, for:
~ Placing the creation of employment at the
centre of national strategies and policies, with the full participation of
employers and trade unions and other parts of civil society;
~ Policies to expand work opportunities and
increase productivity in both rural and urban sectors;
~ Education and training that enable workers and
entrepreneurs to adapt to changing technologies and economic conditions;
~ Quality jobs, with full respect for the basic
rights of workers as defined by relevant International Labour Organization and
other international instruments;
~ Giving special priority, in the design of
policies, to the problems of structural, long-term unemployment and
underemployment of youth, women, persons with disabilities and all other
disadvantaged groups and individuals;
~ Empowerment of women, gender balance in
decision-making processes at all levels and gender analysis in policy
development to ensure equal employment opportunities and wage rates for women
and to enhance harmonious and mutually beneficial partnerships between women and
men in sharing family and employment responsibilities;
~ Empowerment of members of vulnerable and
disadvantaged groups, including through the provision of education and training;
~ A broader recognition and understanding of work
and employment and greater flexibility in working time arrangements for both men
and women.
Actions
A. The centrality of employment in policy
formulation [ Up
]
48. Placing the expansion of productive
employment at the centre of sustainable development strategies and economic and
social policies requires:
(a) Promoting and pursuing active policies for
full, productive, appropriately remunerated and freely chosen employment;
(b) Giving priority at the national and
international levels to the policies that can address the problems of
unemployment and underemployment.
49. Minimizing the negative impact on jobs of
measures for macroeconomic stability requires:
(a) Pursuing the coordination of macroeconomic
policies so that they are mutually reinforcing and conducive to broad-based and
sustained economic growth and sustainable development, as well as to substantial
increases in productive employment expansion and a decline in unemployment world
wide;
(b) Giving priority to programmes that most
directly promote viable and long-term job growth when budgetary adjustments are
required;
(c) Removing structural constraints to economic
growth and employment creation as a part of stabilization policies;
(d) Enabling competing claims on resources to be
resolved in a non-inflationary manner through the development and use of sound
industrial relations systems;
(e) Monitoring, analysing and disseminating
information on the impact of trade and investment liberalization on the economy,
especially on employment;
(f) Exchanging information on different
employment promotion measures and their consequences, and monitoring the
development of global employment trends;
(g) Establishing appropriate social safety
mechanisms to minimize the adverse effects of structural adjustment,
stabilization or reform programmes on the workforce, especially the vulnerable,
and for those who lose their jobs, creating conditions for their re-entry
through, inter alia, continuing education and retraining.
50. Promoting patterns of economic growth that
maximize employment creation requires:
(a) Encouraging, as appropriate, labour-intensive
investments in economic and social infrastructure that use local resources and
create, maintain and rehabilitate community assets in both rural and urban
areas;
(b) Promoting technological innovations and
industrial policies that have the potential to stimulate short and long-term
employment creation, and considering their impact on vulnerable and
disadvantaged groups;
(c) Giving developing countries the capacity to
select specific and suitable technologies;
(d) Providing technical assistance and expanded
transfer of technology to developing countries to integrate technology and
employment policies with other social objectives, and to establish and
strengthen national and local technology institutions;
(e) Encouraging the realization in the countries
with economies in transition of programmes for on-the-job personnel training,
facilitating their adaptation to market-oriented reforms and reducing mass
unemployment;
(f) Promoting mutually supportive improvements in
rural farm and non-farm production, including animal husbandry, forestry,
fisheries and agro-processing industries, aiming to expand and diversify
environmentally sound, sustained economic activity and productive employment in
the rural sector;
(g) Encouraging community economic development
strategies that build on partnerships among Governments and members of civil
society to create jobs and address the social circumstances of individuals,
families and communities;
(h) Introducing sound policies to mobilize
savings and stimulate investment in capital-short areas;
(i) Maximizing the job creation potential
inherent in Agenda 21 through the conservation and management of natural
resources, the promotion of alternative livelihoods in fragile ecosystems, and
the rehabilitation and regeneration of critically affected and vulnerable land
areas and natural resources;
(j) Encouraging the utilization of renewable
energy, based on local employment-intensive resources, in particular in rural
areas.
51. Enhancing opportunities for the creation and
growth of private-sector enterprises that would generate additional employment
requires:
(a) Removing obstacles faced by small and
medium-sized enterprises and easing regulations that discourage private
initiative;
(b) Facilitating access by small and medium-sized
enterprises to credit, national and international markets, management training
and technological information;
(c) Facilitating arrangements between large and
small enterprises, such as subcontracting programmes, with full respect for
workers' rights;
(d) Improving opportunities and working
conditions for women and youth entrepreneurs by eliminating discrimination in
access to credit, productive resources and social security protection, and
providing and increasing, as appropriate, family benefits and social support,
such as health care and child care;
(e) Promoting, supporting and establishing legal
frameworks to foster the development of cooperative enterprises, and encouraging
them to mobilize capital, develop innovative lending programmes and promote
entrepreneurship;
(f) Assisting informal sectors and local
enterprises to become more productive and progressively integrated into the
formal economy through access to affordable credit, information, wider markets,
new technology and appropriate technological and management skills,
opportunities to upgrade technical and management skills, and improved premises
and other physical infrastructure, as well as by progressively extending labour
standards and social protection without destroying the ability of informal
sectors to generate employment;
(g) Promoting the creation and development of
independent organizations, such as chambers of commerce and other associations
or self-help institutions of small formal and informal enterprises;
(h) Facilitating the expansion of the training
and employment-generating opportunities of industries.
B. Education, training and labour policies
[ Up ]
52. Facilitating people's access to productive
employment in today's rapidly changing global environment and developing better
quality jobs requires:
(a) Establishing well-defined educational
priorities and investing effectively in education and training systems;
(b) Introducing new and revitalized partnerships
between education and other government departments, including labour, and
communications and partnerships between Governments and non-governmental
organizations, the private sector, local communities, religious groups and
families;
(c) Ensuring broad basic education, especially
literacy, and promoting general education, including the analytical and critical
thinking that is essential to improve learning skills. This is the foundation
for acquiring specialized skills and for renewing, adapting and upgrading them
rapidly to facilitate horizontal and vertical occupational mobility;
(d) Promoting the active participation of youth
and adult learners in the design of literacy campaigns, education and training
programmes to ensure that the labour force and social realities of diverse
groups are taken into account;
(e) Promoting lifelong learning to ensure that
education and training programmes respond to changes in the economy, provide
full and equal access to training opportunities, secure the access of women to
training programmes, offer incentives for public and private sectors to provide
and for workers to acquire training on a continuous basis, and stimulate
entrepreneurial skills;
(f) Encouraging and supporting through technical
assistance programmes, including those of the United Nations system,
well-designed and adaptable vocational training and apprenticeship programmes to
enhance productivity and productive employment;
(g) Promoting and strengthening training
programmes for the employment of new entrants to the job market and retraining
programmes for displaced and retrenched workers;
(h) Developing an enhanced capacity for research
and knowledge dissemination by encouraging national and international exchanges
of information on innovative models and best practices;
(i) Developing, in the area of vocational and
continuing education, innovative methods of teaching and learning, including
interactive technologies and inductive methods involving close coordination
between working experience and training.
53. Helping workers to adapt and to enhance their
employment opportunities under changing economic conditions requires:
(a) Designing, developing, implementing,
analysing and monitoring active labour policies to stimulate the demand for
labour in order to ensure that the burden of indirect labour costs on employers
does not constitute a disincentive to hiring workers, identifying skill
shortages and surpluses, providing vocational guidance and counselling services
and active help in job searches, promoting occupational choice and mobility,
offering advisory services and support to enterprises, particularly small
enterprises, for the more effective use and development of their workforce, and
establishing institutions and processes that prevent all forms of discrimination
and improve the employment opportunities of groups that are vulnerable and
disadvantaged;
(b) Improving employment opportunities and
increasing ways and means of helping youth and persons with disabilities to
develop the skills they need to enable them to find employment;
(c) Promoting access by women and girls to
traditionally male-dominated occupations;
(d) Developing strategies to address the needs of
people engaged in various forms of atypical employment;
(e) Promoting labour mobility, retraining and
maintenance of adequate levels of social protection to facilitate worker
redeployment when there is phasing out of production or closure of an
enterprise, giving special attention to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups;
(f) Facilitating the integration or reintegration
of women into the workforce by developing adequate child care, care for older
persons and other support services and facilities;
(g) Encouraging cooperation between employers and
workers to prepare for the introduction of new technologies and to plan for
their employment effects as far in advance as possible, while ensuring adequate
protection and adjustment;
(h) Strengthening public and private employment
services to assist workers to adapt to changing job markets and provide social
safety mechanisms, occupational guidance, employment and job search counselling,
training, placement, apprenticeships and the sharing of information;
(i) Strengthening labour market information
systems, particularly through development of appropriate data and indicators on
employment, underemployment, unemployment and earnings, as well as dissemination
of information concerning labour markets, including, as far as possible, work
situations outside formal markets. All such data should be disaggregated by
gender in order to monitor the status of women relative to men.
C. Enhanced quality of work and employment
[ Up ]
54. Governments should enhance the quality of
work and employment by:
(a) Observing and fully implementing the human
rights obligations that they have assumed;
(b) Safeguarding and promoting respect for basic
workers' rights, including the prohibition of forced labour and child labour,
freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively, equal
remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, and non-discrimination
in employment, fully implementing the conventions of the International Labour
Organization (ILO) in the case of States parties to those conventions, and
taking into account the principles embodied in those conventions in the case of
those countries that are not States parties to thus achieve truly sustained
economic growth and sustainable development;
(c) Strongly considering ratification and full
implementation of ILO conventions in these areas, as well as those relating to
the employment rights of minors, women, youth, persons with disabilities and
indigenous people;
(d) Using existing international labour standards
to guide the formulation of national labour legislation and policies;
(e) Promoting the role of ILO, particularly as
regards improving the level of employment and the quality of work;
(f) Encouraging, where appropriate, employers and
workers to consider ways and means for enhancing the sharing of workers in the
profits of enterprises and promoting cooperation between workers and employers
in the decisions of enterprises.
55. To achieve a healthy and safe working
environment, remove exploitation, abolish child labour, raise productivity and
enhance the quality of life requires:
(a) Developing and implementing policies designed
to promote improved working conditions, including health and safety conditions;
(b) Improving health policies that reduce, with a
view to eliminating, environmental health hazards and provide for occupational
health and safety, in conformity with the relevant conventions, and providing
informal sector enterprises and all workers with accessible information and
guidance on how to enhance occupational safety and reduce health risks;
(c) Promoting, in accordance with national laws
and regulations, sound labour relations based on tripartite cooperation and full
respect for freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain
collectively;
(d) Setting specific target dates for eliminating
all forms of child labour that are contrary to accepted international standards
and ensuring the full enforcement of relevant existing laws, and, where
appropriate, enacting the legislation necessary to implement the Convention on
the Rights of the Child and ILO standards, ensuring the protection of working
children, in particular of street children, through the provision of appropriate
health, education and other social services;
(e) Designing labour policies and programmes to
help eradicate family poverty, which is a main cause of child labour,
eliminating child labour and encouraging parents to send their children to
school through, inter alia, the provision of social services and other
incentives;
(f) Establishing policies and programmes to
protect workers, especially women, from sexual harassment and violence;
(g) Encouraging incentives to public and private
enterprises to develop, transfer and adopt technologies and know-how that
improve the working environment, enhance occupational safety and reduce, with a
view to eliminating, health risks.
56. The full participation of women in the labour
market and their equal access to employment opportunities require:
(a) Establishing the principle of equality
between men and women as a basis for employment policy and promoting
gender-sensitivity training to eliminate prejudice against the employment of
women;
(b) Eliminating gender discrimination, including
by taking positive action, where appropriate, in hiring, wages, access to
credit, benefits, promotion, training, career development, job assignment,
working conditions, job security and social security benefits;
(c) Improving women's access to technologies that
facilitate their occupational and domestic work, encourage self-support,
generate income, transform gender-prescribed roles within the productive process
and enable them to move out of stereotyped, low-paying jobs;
(d) Changing those policies and attitudes that
reinforce the division of labour based on gender, and providing institutional
support, such as social protection for maternity, parental leave, technologies
that facilitate the sharing and reduce the burden of domestic chores, and
flexible working arrangements, including parental voluntary part-time employment
and work-sharing, as well as accessible and affordable quality child-care
facilities, to enable working parents to reconcile work with family
responsibilities, paying particular attention to the needs of single-parent
households;
(e) Encouraging men to take an active part in all
areas of family and household responsibilities, including the sharing of
child-rearing and housework.
D. Enhanced employment opportunities for groups
with specific needs [ Up
]
57. The improvement of the design of policies and
programmes requires:
(a) Identifying and reflecting the specific needs
of particular groups, and ensuring that programmes are equitable and
non-discriminatory, efficient and effective in meeting the needs of those
groups;
(b) Actively involving representatives of these
groups in planning, design and management, and monitoring, evaluating and
reorienting these programmes by providing access to accurate information and
sufficient resources to ensure that they reach their intended beneficiaries.
58. Employment policies can better address the
problem of short- and long-term unemployment by:
(a) Incorporating, with the involvement of the
unemployed and/or their associations, a comprehensive set of measures, including
employment planning, re-education and training programmes, literacy, skills
upgrading, counselling and job-search assistance, temporary work schemes,
frequent contact with employment service offices and preparing for entry and
re-entry into the labour market;
(b) Analysing the underlying causes of long-term
unemployment and their effect on different groups, including older workers and
single parents, and designing employment and other supporting policies that
address specific situations and needs;
(c) Promoting social security schemes that reduce
barriers and disincentives to employment so as to enable the unemployed to
improve their capacity to participate actively in society, to maintain an
adequate standard of living and to be able to take advantage of employment
opportunities.
59. Programmes for entry or re-entry into the
labour market aimed at vulnerable and disadvantaged groups can effectively
combat the causes of exclusion on the labour market by:
(a) Complementing literacy actions, general
education or vocational training by work experience that may include support and
instruction on business management and training so as to give better knowledge
of the value of entrepreneurship and other private-sector contributions to
society;
(b) Increasing the level of skills, and also
improving the ability to get a job through improvements in housing, health and
family life.
60. Policies should seek to guarantee all youth
constructive options for their future by:
(a) Providing equal access to education at the
primary and secondary levels, with literacy as a priority and with special
attention to girls;
(b) Encouraging the struggle against illiteracy
and promoting literacy training in national languages in developing countries,
in particular in Africa;
(c) Encouraging various actors to join forces in
designing and carrying out comprehensive and coordinated programmes that
stimulate the resourcefulness of youth, preparing them for durable employment or
self-employment, and providing them with guidance, vocational and managerial
training, social skills, work experience and education in social values;
(d) Ensuring the participation of youth,
commensurate with their age and responsibility, in planning and decision-making
with regard to their future.
61. The full participation of indigenous people
in the labour market and their equal access to employment opportunities requires
developing comprehensive employment, education and training programmes that take
account of the particular needs of indigenous people.
62. Broadening the range of employment
opportunities for persons with disabilities requires:
(a) Ensuring that laws and regulations do not
discriminate against persons with disabilities;
(b) Taking proactive measures, such as organizing
support services, devising incentive schemes and supporting self-help schemes
and small businesses;
(c) Making appropriate adjustments in the
workplace to accommodate persons with disabilities, including in that respect
the promotion of innovative technologies;
(d) Developing alternative forms of employment,
such as supported employment, for persons with disabilities who need these
services;
(e) Promoting public awareness within society
regarding the impact of the negative stereotyping of persons with disabilities
on their participation in the labour market.
63. There is need for intensified international
cooperation and national attention to the situation of migrant workers and their
families. To that end:
(a) Governments are invited to consider ratifying
existing instruments pertaining to migrant workers, particularly the
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of Their Families; 15/
(b) In accordance with national legislation,
Governments of receiving countries are urged to consider extending to documented
migrants who meet appropriate length-of-stay requirements and to members of
their families whose stay in the receiving country is regular, treatment equal
to that accorded their own nationals with regard to the enjoyment of basic human
rights, including equality of opportunity and treatment in respect of religious
practices, working conditions, social security, participation in trade unions
and access to health, education, cultural and other social services, as well as
equal access to the judicial system and equal treatment before the law;
(c) Governments of countries of origin, transit
countries and countries of destination are urged to cooperate in reducing the
causes of undocumented migration, safeguarding the basic human rights of
undocumented migrants and preventing their exploitation;
(d) Governments of both receiving countries and
countries of origin should adopt effective sanctions against those who organize
undocumented migration, exploit undocumented migrants or engage in trafficking
in undocumented migrants;
(e) Governments of countries of origin are urged
to facilitate the return of migrants and their reintegration into their home
communities and to devise ways of using their skills. Governments of countries
of origin should consider collaborating with countries of destination and
engaging the support of appropriate international organizations in promoting the
return on a voluntary basis of qualified migrants who can play a crucial role in
the transfer of knowledge, skills and technology. Countries of destination are
encouraged to facilitate return migration on a voluntary basis by adopting
flexible policies, such as the transferability of pensions and other work
benefits.
E. A broader recognition and understanding of
work and employment [ Up
]
64. A broader recognition and understanding of
work and employment requires:
(a) Acknowledging the important contribution of
unremunerated work to societal well-being and bringing respect, dignity and
value to societal perceptions of such work and the people who do it;
(b) Developing a more comprehensive knowledge of
work and employment through, inter alia, efforts to measure and better
understand the type, extent and distribution of unremunerated work, particularly
work in caring for dependants and unremunerated work done for family farms or
businesses, and encouraging, sharing and disseminating information, studies and
experience in this field, including on the development of methods for assessing
its value in quantitative terms, for possible reflection in accounts that may be
produced separately from, but are consistent with, core national accounts;
(c) Recognizing the relationship between
remunerated employment and unremunerated work in developing strategies to expand
productive employment, to ensure equal access by women and men to employment,
and to ensure the care and well-being of children and other dependants, as well
as to combat poverty and promote social integration;
(d) Encouraging an open dialogue on the
possibilities and institutional requirements for a broader understanding of
various forms of work and employment;
(e) Examining a range of policies and programmes,
including social security legislation, and taxation systems, in accordance with
national priorities and policies, to ascertain how to facilitate flexibility in
the way people divide their time between education and training, paid
employment, family responsibilities, volunteer activity and other socially
useful forms of work, leisure and retirement, giving particular attention to the
situation of women, especially in female-maintained households;
(f) Promoting socially useful volunteer work and
allocating appropriate resources to support such work without diluting the
objectives regarding employment expansion;
(g) Intensifying international exchange of
experience on various aspects of change in the recognition and understanding of
work and employment and on new forms of flexible working time arrangements over
the lifetime.
65. The development of additional socially useful
new types of employment and work requires, inter alia:
(a) Helping vulnerable and disadvantaged groups
to integrate better into society and thus participate more effectively in
economic and social development;
(b) Helping older persons who are dependent or
providing support for families in need of educational assistance or social
support;
(c) Strengthening social ties through these forms
of employment and work, which represents an important achievement of social
development policy.
[ Previous
Chapter ] [ Next Chapter
]
[ Up ]
(This document has been made
available in electronic format by the United Nations.)
